From d4728a0d801f1ebbc2384547009df17cbf16bfd1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Affaan Mustafa <me@affaanmustafa.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 02:59:58 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix: fall back to ASCII instinct status bars

Fixes #1855
---
 .../scripts/instinct-cli.py                   | 23 ++++++++++++-
 .../scripts/test_parse_instinct.py            | 34 +++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 56 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/instinct-cli.py b/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/instinct-cli.py
index a4ce1cdb..7b03bc0e 100755
--- a/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/instinct-cli.py
+++ b/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/instinct-cli.py
@@ -82,6 +82,27 @@ def _normalize_remote_url(remote_url: str) -> str:
     return normalized.lower() if is_network else normalized
 
 
+def _stream_can_encode(text: str, stream=None) -> bool:
+    stream = stream or sys.stdout
+    encoding = getattr(stream, "encoding", None) or sys.getdefaultencoding()
+    try:
+        text.encode(encoding)
+    except (LookupError, UnicodeEncodeError):
+        return False
+    return True
+
+
+def _confidence_bar(confidence, stream=None) -> str:
+    try:
+        filled = int(float(confidence) * 10)
+    except (TypeError, ValueError):
+        filled = 5
+    filled = max(0, min(10, filled))
+
+    full, empty = ("\u2588", "\u2591") if _stream_can_encode("\u2588\u2591", stream) else ("#", ".")
+    return full * filled + empty * (10 - filled)
+
+
 def _project_hash(value: str) -> str:
     return hashlib.sha256(value.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()[:12]
 
@@ -550,7 +571,7 @@ def _print_instincts_by_domain(instincts: list[dict]) -> None:
 
         for inst in sorted(domain_instincts, key=lambda x: -x.get('confidence', 0.5)):
             conf = inst.get('confidence', 0.5)
-            conf_bar = '\u2588' * int(conf * 10) + '\u2591' * (10 - int(conf * 10))
+            conf_bar = _confidence_bar(conf)
             trigger = inst.get('trigger', 'unknown trigger')
             scope_tag = f"[{inst.get('scope', '?')}]"
 
diff --git a/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/test_parse_instinct.py b/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/test_parse_instinct.py
index 71734a9a..b9871493 100644
--- a/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/test_parse_instinct.py
+++ b/skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/test_parse_instinct.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ _find_cross_project_instincts = _mod._find_cross_project_instincts
 load_registry = _mod.load_registry
 _validate_instinct_id = _mod._validate_instinct_id
 _update_registry = _mod._update_registry
+_confidence_bar = _mod._confidence_bar
 
 
 # ─────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -642,6 +643,39 @@ def test_cmd_status_with_instincts(patch_globals, monkeypatch, capsys):
     assert "GLOBAL" in out
 
 
+def test_confidence_bar_uses_unicode_when_supported():
+    """Confidence bars should retain block glyphs on UTF-8 streams."""
+    stream = SimpleNamespace(encoding="utf-8")
+    assert _confidence_bar(0.8, stream=stream) == "\u2588" * 8 + "\u2591" * 2
+
+
+def test_confidence_bar_uses_ascii_when_stream_rejects_block_glyphs():
+    """Windows cp1252 streams cannot encode block glyphs."""
+    stream = SimpleNamespace(encoding="cp1252")
+    assert _confidence_bar(0.8, stream=stream) == "########.."
+
+
+def test_print_instincts_by_domain_is_cp1252_safe(monkeypatch):
+    """Status rendering should not crash on Windows cp1252 stdout."""
+    raw = io.BytesIO()
+    stream = io.TextIOWrapper(raw, encoding="cp1252")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(_mod.sys, "stdout", stream)
+
+    _mod._print_instincts_by_domain([{
+        "id": "windows-safe",
+        "trigger": "when stdout uses cp1252",
+        "confidence": 0.8,
+        "domain": "platform",
+        "scope": "project",
+    }])
+
+    stream.flush()
+    out = raw.getvalue().decode("cp1252")
+    assert "########.." in out
+    assert "\u2588" not in out
+    assert "\u2591" not in out
+
+
 def test_cmd_status_returns_int(patch_globals, monkeypatch):
     """cmd_status should always return an int."""
     tree = patch_globals